This week we will have a closer look at another influential Urdu Qurʾan translation, this time Ahmad Riza Khan’s (1856–1921) Kanzul Iman. Ahmad Riza Khan hailed from Bareilly in India, where he lived for his entire life. His ancestry can be traced back to the Pathans, specifically, it seems likely, to a tribe that migrated …
Qur’an translation of the week #179: Ahmad Riza Khan’s Kanzul Iman Read More »
This week we will take a closer look at Muhammad Ali’s 1923 Urdu translation, Bayān al-Qurʾān. Muhammad Ali, a prominent Ahmadi scholar, ascended to the leadership of the Lahore branch following a schism within the Ahmadiyya movement in 1914. In a previous post, we introduced Muhammad Ali and his influential English Qur’an translation of 1917 …
Qur’an translation of the week #171: Muhammad Ali’s Urdu Translation: Bayān al-Qurʾān Read More »
Mīr Muḥammad Saʿīd (d. 1924) authored the first complete Ahmadi Urdu translation of the Qur’an, which was published in 1915 under the title Qurʾān Majīd Mutarjam: maʿa tafsīr awḍaḥ al-Qurʾān musammā bih tafsīr-i aḥmadī. Originating from Hyderabad, Mīr Muḥammad Saʿīd held the position of local chairman (amīr) within the Ahmadiyya movement. According to Ahmadi sources, …
Qur’an translation of the week #163: The first complete Ahmadi Urdu translation Read More »
This week we look at the Urdu translation by the famous scholar and writer Abul Kalam Azad, who left a lasting impact on the Indian subcontinent through both his journalistic and political careers. Abul Kalam Azad (d. 1958) was descended from a family that had long served the Mughals in India and that emigrated to …
Qur’an translation of the week #118: Tarjumān-i Qurʾan Read More »
What do you do when the language of a Qur’an translation becomes outdated, but you still want readers to benefit from the work? One answer is provided by Maḥmūd Ḥasan’s Urdu Qur’an translation, which was later included in the Tafsīr-i Uthmānī. Maḥmūd Ḥasan (d. 1920), who became later known as ‘Shaykh al-Hind’, was born in …
Qur’an translation of the week #97: Tafsīr-i Uthmānī – ‘Restoring’ an old translation Read More »
What role does modern science play in our understanding of the Qur’an? This week we will look at the Urdu translation/exegesis of Sayyid Ahmad Khan (d. 1898), who tried to bridge the gap between ancient Islamic tradition and modern science. Sayyid Ahmad Khan was born in Delhi in 1817 into an Ashraf family. After the …
In previous posts (QTOTW 39 and 46), we have introduced the Persian Qur’an translation authored by Shāh Walī Allāh Dihlawī (1703–1762), and his son Shāh ʿAbd al-Qādir Dihlawī’s Urdu translation, both of which had a huge impact on subsequent Qur’an translations produced in the Indian subcontinent during the nineteenth century. Father and son both opted …
Qur’an translation of the week #59: The first complete verbatim Urdu Qur’an translation Read More »
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Indian subcontinent witnessed a significant increase in the production of Qurʾan translations into vernacular languages. The continuing rise in literacy rates, accompanied by falling printing costs, enabled more people to engage with the Qur’an and explore its meanings at an individual level. This, in turn, created …
Qur’an translation of the week #53: Nazir Ahmad’s Urdu Qur’an translation Read More »
Unlike Arabic works, Qur’an commentaries in other languages have to involve or incorporate translation of the scriptural text. When those works are translated, the Qur’an translation itself may have to be rendered in the new language. Before looking at a few examples, particularly noting how this process can go wrong, let’s appreciate the value of …
Qur’an translation of the week #47: Chain Translations from Urdu to English Read More »
South Asian Muslims have been translating the Qur’an into Urdu for over two centuries. The first complete Urdu translations emerged at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. “Mūḍiḥ al-Qurʼān”, which is arguably the first full Qur’an translation to be written in idiomatic Urdu, was authored by Shāh ʿAbd al-Qādir …
